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General

Study Overview

Title:

Economic and Empowerment Impacts of Millet Processing and Value Addition Enterprises by Women SHGs in Tribal Areas of Odisha, India

Study is 3ie funded:

Yes

Study ID:

RIDIE-STUDY-ID-61d2b6eb94bd9

Initial Registration Date:

01/03/2022

Last Update Date:

11/25/2021

Study Status:

In Development

Location(s):

India

Abstract:

The primary goal of the project is to generate evidence on the impact of services and support related to millet processing and value addition to female group-based enterprises to enable Odisha Millet Mission (OMM) further develop its strategy for promoting millet enterprises through women’s collectives. For example, the evaluation will generate estimates on whether households and self-help groups with certain characteristics have better ‘capacity’ to take advantage of the support and services offered through the programme which, will help the implementing agency improve its targeting in future interventions. We will also evaluate the additional benefits from OMM’s value addition activities within the programme (value addition will be provided primarily through new product development, for example developing new recipes for high value/commercial products such as biscuits, burgers, sandwiches, pastas, and noodles), evidence which will aid the implementing agency to determine the optimal mix between support for millet processing and value addition in future interventions. Evidence from OMM’s intervention will also help inform the development of other government initiatives that aim to improve rural livelihoods through women’s collectives.

While there is considerable evidence on the effects of interventions providing financial capital or training to women’s groups (see, for example, Barooah et al., 2019, for a review), to our knowledge there is little available evidence from interventions that provide enterprise development or provide support through product development and strengthening market linkages. This is an important evidence gap that we aim to fill in.

Registration Citation:

Categories:

Agriculture and Rural Development
Economic Policy
Private Sector Development

Additional Keywords:

Women empowerment collectives, millet processing and value addition, causal impact, cluster randomised control trial

Secondary ID Number(s):

EP1.0268

Principal Investigator(s)

Name of First PI:

Apurba Shee

Affiliation:

University of Greenwich

Name of Second PI:

Affiliation:

Study Sponsor

Name:

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Study Sponsor Location:

India

Research Partner

Name of Partner Institution:

Watershed Support Service and Activities Network (WASSAN)

Type of Organization:

NGO (local) or other civil society organization

Location:

India

Intervention

Intervention Overview

Intervention:

The intervention under study is millet processing and value addition enterprises undertaken by women SHG members in tribal areas in Odisha. The key components of the millet processing and value addition enterprises will be the following.

1) Technical support to postharvest and processing of millets- to remove technological constraints OMM has been promoting millet postharvest and processing with women SHGs by providing machineries such as threshers, graders, destoners, and dehullers. The project will provide operational support services including training of local mechanics.

2) Value addition through new product development- The project will work on three broad millet consumption areas: 1. Household-level consumption- Postharvest machinery will be useful to ensure that clean and dirt-free millet is available for consumption at the household level.2. Community-level consumption- In addition to household consumption, there are many dishes or recipes made during community events or in local markets. 3. Commercial or high-value product consumption- Youth, especially in semi-urban and urban areas today have the greatest interest in different kinds of high value/commercial products such as biscuits, burgers, sandwiches, pastas, noodles, etc.

3) Enterprise development support- Group-specific enterprise development support is necessary. Similarly, SHGs getting to enterprises for developing high-value products need separate business development.

4) Gender-responsive training and capacity building- The project will provide training on enterprise development around millet processing and value addition.

5) Innovation nutrition profiling, and market linkage- We will conduct nutritional profiling of the millet landraces and millet products. The project will also work with women federation/ FPOs to establish market and industry linkages.

Theory of Change:

The impact pathway diagram links actual needs to programmatic inputs, expected outputs, outcomes, and long-term impacts. The principal problem is the existing gender gap in entrepreneurship and lack of quality employment for women. This creates the need for a woman-focused and group-based microenterprise. The millet processing intervention with the SHGs aims to increase business volume to make the enterprise viable for many value chain actors. This integrated microenterprise may have a significant contribution to household income, as preliminary findings show a net annual income from such enterprise is about Rs 20,000 - 40,000 (Mishra 2020). This approach not only uses women’s time effectively but also provides women control over income. In particular, the adoption of advanced millet processing machinery and methods will reduce drudgery work for women and improve their time use, which can impact children’s health, education, and nutrition.

In addition, participation in SHGs may increase women’s access to credit that may be used in productive activities, including millet processing. This productive investment can increase household income as well as improve household consumption smoothing over time. The collective actions from both the SHGs and the millet processing enterprises, along with women’s control over income, can improve women’s ability to make decisions in the household (as discussed above), and this factor may interact with other impact pathways. For example, the existing literature indicates that improved ability to make decisions within the household can enable women to allocate more resources towards child health, education, and nutrition. Overall, this approach may result in a positive effect on household and women’s income and other welfare indicators, as well as improving overall food security and nutrition in the household.

Multiple Treatment Arms Evaluated?

Yes

Implementing Agency

Name of Organization:

Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN)

Type of Organization:

NGO (local)/Community Based Organization/Other civil society organization

Program Funder

Name of Organization:

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Type of Organization:

NGO (International)

Intervention Timing

Intervention or Program Started at time of Registration?

Yes

Start Date:

11/15/2021

End Date:

01/31/2024

Evaluation Method

Evaluation Method Overview

Primary (or First) Evaluation Method:

Randomized control trial

Other (not Listed) Method:

Additional Evaluation Method (If Any):

Other (not Listed) Method:

Method Details

Details of Evaluation Approach:

To assess the impact of the provision of services relate to millet processing and value addition, we have defined the two treatment arms as follows:

(i) Treatment Arm 1: Provision of support and services related to enterprise development including revolving fund, training and capacity building, and developing market linkages for millet processing for members of SHGs aged three years or more;

(ii) Treatment Arm 2: All the support and services mentioned in treatment arm 1 and value addition through developing new products (high-value products and recipes such as biscuit, cakes, etc.) for members of SHGs aged three years or more;

(iii) Control Arm: No intervention.

The study SHGs in all three arms, including the control arm, will be at least 3 years old and will have access to machineries such as threshers, graders, destoners, and dehullers provided by OMM.

We will collect various information on social capital within SHGs and socio-economic characteristics of the households. To investigate heterogeneity in treatment effects, we will interact measures based on these experiments and other socio-economic characteristics recorded at baseline, with treatment dummies in a regression framework.

It will also yield estimates on whether households and self-help groups with certain characteristics have a better ‘capacity’ to take advantage of the support and services offered through the programme which, we believe, will help the implementing agency improve its targeting in future interventions. We will investigate if the capacity (maturity) of SHGs is a factor for a successful enterprise by heterogeneity analysis using the initial level of social capital of the SHG.

The eligibility criteria for programme participation and the sampling criteria for the baseline and endline surveys are identical across all treatment/control arms.

Outcomes (Endpoints):

The primary and secondary outcomes are provided below.

Primary outcomes: household income, women income, business investment, nutrient intake for children under 12 months and their mothers, Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI), five domains of empowerment: decision-making authority regarding household-level production decisions; access to, and control over, productive resources within the household; control over household income; community leadership; and time allocation. All of these outcomes will be measured using responses to the Household questionnaire and Women’s Questionnaire in the baseline and endline surveys.

Enterprise outcomes: Sales revenue or profit, productivity residual, business investment or capital, hours worked, loans from formal or informal sources, business practices (record keeping), participation and decision making on various activities related to enterprise technical knowledge and skills of millet processing and value addition, livelihood diversification. All of these outcomes will be measured using responses to the Women’s Questionnaire in the baseline and endline surveys.

Secondary outcomes: household food consumption (smoothing), child education, dietary diversity and food security, subjective welfare, attitudes towards entrepreneurship and female work, SHG-level outcomes such as social capital, group size, internal lending volume, bank loan volume, etc. All of these outcomes will be measured using responses to the Household Questionnaire and Women’s Questionnaire in the baseline and endline surveys.

Unit of Analysis:

Village

Hypotheses:

1. How does the provision of services related to millet processing affect entrepreneurial activities (e.g. business investments and income generation) among women in SHGs? What is the additional effect of services related to value addition on these outcomes?
2. How does the provision of services relate to millet processing and value addition affect household welfare (e.g. nutrition, health, and education of children)?
3. How does the provision of services related to millet processing and value addition affect intermediate outcomes such as social capital of SHGs, women’s time allocation to business and household activities, their decision-making authority within the household, etc.?
4. Does the provision of services related to millet processing and value addition have differential effects on women depending on initial levels of social capital within SHGs, attitudes towards enterprise and uncertainty, and other socio-economic characteristics of the household?

Unit of Intervention or Assignment:

village

Number of Clusters in Sample:

From the 83 selected villages we randomly assign 28 villages to treatment arm 1, another 28 villages to treatment arm 2, and the remaining 27 villages to the control arm.

Number of Individuals in Sample:

The sample size is 1,660 ( = 83 x 20) households

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

Since we select 20 households from a cluster and 27 or 28 clusters per arm, the total sample size in an RCT arm will be 560 (in the control arm) or 580 (in each of the treatment arms).

Supplementary Files

Analysis Plan:

Other Documents:

Data

Outcomes Data

Description:

We will collect all outcome data through baseline and endline household surveys. We will conduct two separate interviews at a household. One of the interviews will be with the household head, as identified by the household, wherein we will ask questions regarding household assets, income, consumption, loans, savings, and other household-level information. The other interview will be with the female household member who belongs to the SHG.

Data Already Collected?

No

Data Previously Used?

Data Access:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Approval Process:

Approval Status:

Treatment Assignment Data

Participation or Assignment Information:

Yes

Description:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Previously Used?

Data Access:

Data Obtained by the Study Researchers?

Data Approval Process:

Approval Status:

Data Analysis

Data Analysis Status:

Study Materials

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Registration Category

Registration Category:

Prospective, Category 1: Data for measuring impacts have not been collected

Completion

Completion Overview

Intervention Completion Date:

Data Collection Completion Date:

Unit of Analysis:

Clusters in Final Sample:

Total Observations in Final Sample:

Size of Treatment, Control, or Comparison Subsamples:

Findings

Preliminary Report:

Preliminary Report URL:

Summary of Findings:

Paper:

Paper Summary:

Paper Citation:

Data Availability

Data Availability (Primary Data):

Date of Data Availability:

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Access procedure:

Other Materials

Survey:

Survey Instrument Links or Contact:

Program Files:

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External Link:

External Link Description:

Description of Changes:

Study Stopped

Date:

Reason: